This invention relates to apparatus for use in "long line" fishing, that is to say fishing such as may be carried out with sea-going fishing vessels, using a line having hooks spaced apart along it. Such fishing lines have the hooks attached to the main line by short trailing lengths of line called "snoods". Lines of this kind are used for catching white-fish such as cod, ling, ray, turbot, plaice and haddock.
The bait-material used when fishing for white-fish is usually cut-up pieces of mackerel or herring, and the baitpieces have to be attached to the individual hooks. In my U.S. Pat. No. 4,250,648, there are described a method and apparatus which make it possible for a fishing line of the above-mentioned kind to be baited in a continuous operation as it is paid out from the fishing vessel. The baited line may conveniently be paid out from the stern of the vessel as the vessel moves forward, the distal end of the line being anchored to the seabed by means of a suitable anchor.
Subsequently the line with the catch thereon has to be taken up from the seabed. This is done with the distal end of the line still anchored on the seabed, and with the vessel moving forward towards the anchor-point and hauling in the line as it goes. As the line is hauled in, the fish may be removed from the hooks and the hooks cleaned, before feeding the line to a magazine for storage prior to a further fishing operation.
In conjunction with the baiting apparatus, in my aforesaid patent specification there is also described a particularly effective storage arrangement for fishing lines of the above-mentioned kind, in which the hooks are engaged with a rail, so that the snoods hang down below the hooks, in closely spaced side-by-side relationship, and the main line is suspended from the snoods in looped formation. This arrangement minimizes the possibility of tangling during storage, and ensures that when the line is required for further use, it can be fed to the baiting apparatus in an orderly and trouble-free manner.
When a fishing line which has been hauled in from the sea is fed to such an arrangement, the snoods carrying the respective hooks have to be unravelled from the main line and the individual hooks have to be separated and engaged with the rail, this operation being referred to as "splitting". If carried out manually, splitting is an extremely tedious and time-consuming operation.
The principal object of the invention is therefore to provide apparatus which will enable the operation of separating the hooks to be carried out mechanically.
A further and more specific object of the invention is to provide apparatus for separating hooks of a fishing line of the kind mentioned above, the apparatus comprising a rail-member, means for hauling a fishing line in a direction extending at an angle to the rail-member and a guide-member adapted to be engaged by successive hooks of such a fishing line being hauled by the hauling means, and to guide the hooks into engagement with the rail-member, whereby as the fishing line is hauled relatively to the rail-member, hooks engaged with the rail-member are caused to slide along the latter so as to separate them from the main line.
As the fishing line is hauled, due to the fact that it is moving in a direction extending at an angle to the rail-member, as the individual hooks slide along the rail-member, they move away from the main line, the snoods which attach the hooks to the main line meanwhile executing a pivotting movement relatively to the main line, and in this way the separating or "splitting" action is effected in a continuous operation.
While the arrangement is such that at the point where the hooks are brought into engagement with the rail-member, the line is moving in a direction extending at an angle to the rail-member, preferably the rail-member is itself curved in such a way that sliding movement of the hooks along it, causes the snoods to pivot into a position in which finally they extend substantially perpendicular to the direction of movement of the main line, so as to complete the splitting operation.
The guide-member may conveniently be of generally tubular form, so that a fishing line passes through the guide-member as the hooks are guided into engagement with the rail-member. Preferably the guide-member is in the form of a tube which is split lengthwise thereof and is arranged with its longitudinal axis extending at an angle to the rail-member so that a fishing line being hauled by the hauling means passes through the tubular guide-member in the direction of the said longitudinal axis thereof. The split tubular guide-member may define at one end face thereof, a slot extending radially relatively to the said end face, one edge of the slot being contiguous with the rail-member, whereby the slot serves to guide successive hooks of a fishing line passing through the guide-member, into engagement with the rail-member. A spring-loaded plunger may be provided in the slot, to control entry of successive hooks into the slot.
The guide-member and the rail-member together constitute the splitting device proper, and they may conveniently be of unitary construction. The line-hauling means may conveniently comprise a drive-sheave rotated by a hydraulic motor and as will be seen from the more detailed description given hereinafter, the whole apparatus including the hydraulically operated line-hauling means and the splitting device can be constructed as a compact self-contained unit. For ease of cleaning, it is desirable for as many as possible of the components of the apparatus (and in particular the guide-member and rail-member constituting the splitting device as referred to above) to be made from stainless steel.